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Sotomayor: Slowing things down?

With Sonia Sotomayor on Capitol Hill yesterday, "Republican leaders signaled they would resist President Obama's push to confirm her by Aug. 7, the start of the Senate's summer recess. Sessions and Leahy are expected to meet Wednesday to begin formal discussions about the schedule, and Reid said the terms remain flexible," the Washington Post reports. "But senior Senate aides in both parties are skeptical that a deal to expedite Sotomayor's confirmation can be reached. With Democrats holding 59 Senate seats, one short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster, and moderates in both parties already sending favorable signals about Sotomayor, Republican opponents are unlikely to find enough votes to block her confirmation."

"What GOP senators can do is slow down the process, a tactic that would allow more time for negative information to emerge. Democrats scoffed at Republican stalling tactics, circulating a quote from Sessions after Justice Samuel Alito was nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Conner in 2005. The Bush administration was pressing then-Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (Pa.), who has since changed his party affiliation to Democrat, to confirm Alito before Congress left for its winter break. [Jeff] Sessions was quoted telling reporters during that period, 'My personal view is, let's finish it this year; let's not have it hanging out there. You don't have to read everything he's written.'"

A "Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, who requested anonymity, said the final tally will depend on her performance in the months ahead," The Hill reports. "'It could be with 75 votes or it could be with 57 votes, and it depends on whether she assures people,' the senator said."

"Will Nino finally meet his match in Sonia? That's the buzz about a Supreme Court faceoff between the most notoriously caustic sitting justice, Antonin Scalia, and President Obama's first nominee for the bench, Sonia Sotomayor. Neither of the brassy New Yorkers - he's from Queens, she's from the Bronx -- suffers fools, or unprepared lawyers."